Wok Rings and Griddles
A range cooker offers a fantastic cooking experience. Choosing the cookware you use with it is also very important and depends on whether you are using induction or gas, what type of food you are cooking and what kind of space you have on your hob top.
Many kitchens may have well stocked cupboards and storage drawers full of all the cookware you could possibly need. From pots and pans to roasting trays, many manufacturers offer a few extra additions to match their range cookers and make the cooking experience even better.
In this post, we want to focus on wok rings and griddles, to see how they can benefit your cooking and just which range cookers you can use them on…
What is a wok ring?
Woks have become an integral part of a kitchen, with them being used for a variety of cooking tasks including stir-frying, boiling and steaming. However, if your wok happens to have a rounded base, it may not sit on your hob securely. This is where a wok ring comes in very handy, as they provide a stable and secure platform for your wok.
The cast iron wok support ring sits on top of the existing range cooker pan supports to cradle a traditional shaped wok.
What can I cook using a wok ring?
Woks can be used to sizzle up some delicious and easy recipes such as:
- Deep-fried items such as potatoes, chicken etc. This works well as it can take a large amount of heat with it being such a deep pan.
- Stir-fry’s – when people think about a wok, their first thought is normally stir-frying. Generating complex flavours in just minutes, a wok is a kitchen essential for any home chef.
- Braising – Whilst a stir-fry may have just enough sauce within it to cover the ingredients, a wok braised dish will a more saucy consistency. A wok allows you to move the ingredients around easily and it is easy to pour a dish with lots of sauce without the use of a utensil.
- Popcorn – believe it or not you can chuck in those corn pieces and watch your popcorn come to life whilst it is sat comfortably in its wok ring (always make sure to put a lid over the wok when doing this).
Benefits of using a wok ring
- Can prevent food from sticking to the bottom of the pan. This comes in handy when stir-frying food or deep-frying as it prevents the ingredients from burning and makes cleaning up afterwards much easier.
- The heat is concentrated towards the bottom surface of the wok, making it best suited for high temperature cooking.
- The primary use of a wok ring is to provide a stable surface for a round bottomed wok pan and allowing the even heating of any food within it.
What is a griddle?
A griddle is a type of grill with a flat or ridged surface for cooking. This type of grill is typically used for cooking food items such as steaks.
Unlike a regular frying pan, the base of a griddle pan often has raised ridges. It is the perfect way of giving a chargrilled look to your food, whilst often making it healthier due to the channel that runs around the outside of the griddle plate, causing any fat to run off it.
Providing flexibility and often healthier food, there are griddle solutions for both gas and induction hobs.
What can I cook using a griddle?
To ensure the food you are cooking when using your griddle is done properly, it is advisable to slice it quite thinly. This will help you to achieve the best charred and smokey look you can get, whilst also making sure your food is cooked all the way through.
Ideal foods for cooking on a griddle:
- Steak
- Chicken
- Fish
- Thin burgers
- Vegetable slices such as courgette, peppers
- Pancakes
- Toasties
- Bacon
- Eggs
Some styles of griddle can also be used for making dishes like stir-fry’s, such as the Rangemaster Teppanyaki griddle.
Benefits of using a griddle
- Versatile with what can be cooked on top of it, from savoury to sweet and everything in between
- Creates a large cooking surface, rather than a small pan on one single burner
- Fats and oils drip off into the bottom of the griddle plate to allow healthier cooking
- Your griddle can last for a lifetime. It is made of a sturdy and durable material that can take extreme temperatures for a long time if looked after
Here are some range cookers that are perfect for wok or griddle cooking…
The Nexus SE mixes traditional cooking methods with contemporary styling, making it a winning choice for any kitchen.
This enhanced Rangemaster takes cooking up a level with a versatile multifunction oven, a fanned second oven and even a slow cook oven. It is also comes with an improved dual circuit electric grill, which offers even more cooking flexibility and capacity.
On top is a special seven burner hob with five gas burners, including a triple ring wok burner, and two ceramic cooking zones that act as a heat source for the well-designed removable griddle. This griddle creates a great MultiZone cooking area, cooking delicious food Japanese style with a flat surface that fits snugly over the cooking zones or burners. This is perfect for cooking cuisines from burgers and stir-fry’s to pancakes.
AGA Masterchef Deluxe 110 Induction
This lovely Aga Masterchef Deluxe 110 Induction brings with it all the simple and timeless visual qualities associated with its iconic brand, but instead of an unwieldy and expensive-to-run cast iron monolith you get a very usable modern range cooker with all the features and flexibility you could need.
On top next generation induction zones give you the very best this impressive technology can offer - rapid power when you need it down to a gentle trickle, with comfort, convenience and energy efficiency. The sleek surface of the induction hob not only looks stunning and performs like a dream, when you have finished you can spruce it up straight away with the wipe of a cloth. Also supplied is a cast iron griddle plate to take advantage of the bridging feature, where two zones work in unison to give you evenly distributed sizzle-power.
Top left is a dedicated grill with dual circuit element and a heavy grade tray which glides out on telescopic arms for safety and convenience. To the right of this is the welcome bonus of a slow cook oven - great for stews, curries and rice puddings as well as plate warming - and bottom right is a large fanned oven. The same size cavity is used for the main oven on the left, a very versatile multifunction oven with fanned, conventional and grilling capabilities which is great for traditional roasts, blind baking, browning and baking.
Distinctive Italian styling and well-considered features for a very fair price are qualities evident throughout the DeLonghi product range. The specification is equally pleasing: the programmable A-rated main oven has 8 different fanned and conventional cooking functions and includes a grill. The second conventional oven includes a very clever Rotisserie and another grill, along with a useful plate warming shelf.
The impressive specifications continue on top - the Professional-style hob is made from a seamless sheet of stainless steel, making cleaning a dream and the very smart looking rear upstand is removable if preferred. The five gas burners include an unusually powerful 4kW triple flame wok burner and cast iron pan supports, with flame safety devices on all burners. A removable cast iron wok cradle is a great value addition.
This amazing dual cavity ILVE range cooker offers copious cooking capacity and A+ rated energy efficiency in a premium and very refined package.
The versatile and huge 97 litre multifunction main oven includes a rotisserie and gives you 15 fanned, conventional and grill functions, with the large 65 litre second oven offering non-fanned cooking and grilling functions. Both cavities feature easy clean enamel interiors and two-height halogen lighting for a great view of what is going on, as well as child safety locks. There are even steam discharge vents to allow you to control the humidity or condensation levels to let a little out for wetter dishes or keep it in for baking - a nice touch which demonstrates ILVE’s commitment to culinary detail.
Top-side the detail continues with 9 solid brass gas burners of the highest quality with a black easy-clean nanotechnology coating giving them a non-stick thermal durability. This highly impressive range has 2 x 4.3kW double ring wok burners, 4 x 3kW medium burners, 2 x 1.8kW burners and a 3.1kW fish burner. The superb removable Fry Top is a real must-have for serious cooks - a solid stainless steel teppanyaki-style cooking surface brilliant for anything from meat, fish and all day breakfasts to drop-scones, pancakes or stir-fries.
…and our very own favourites: The Bigblue Wok Ring and Steak Griddle
The Bigblue wok support ring has been designed as a universal accessory, suitable for all types of multi-ring gas burner, and is in our opinion the best wok support ring on the market. Cast in iron, with a durable vitreous enamel finish to ensure many years of faithful service in providing a stable and secure platform for your wok, which will be placed at the optimum height for stir-frying.
The Bigblue steak griddle has been cleverly designed to get the best from griddle cooking, and is vitreous-enamelled to ensure many years of cooking service. The iron ribs are designed to deliver optimum heat, whilst allowing juices to freely run from a steak. Universal in design, the griddle has been engineered to fit a broad variety of pan supports.
To find out more about anything mentioned in this post, call our team on 01244 402 975 or head to our website here.
